DAVIES, ELLIS THOMAS (1822 - 1895), Independent minister

b. March 1822 at Tŷ Mawr, Pennantlliw Bach, Llanuwchllyn, a home celebrated in the history of the local Independent connexion. His father was an elder in the ‘Old Chapel,’ and Ap Vychan (Robert Thomas, 1809 - 1880) lived with him as a shepherd boy for seven years, a period which, as he acknowledged, had a lasting influence on him. E. T. Davies began to preach about 1842 at the same time as Michael D. Jones, son of Michael Jones, minister of the ‘Old Chapel,’ and it was the latter who taught the two at his school at Weirglodd Wen from which Davies went to Brecon College. In 1847 he received a call to minister to the churches at Llansantsiôr and Moelfre and was ordained the following year. Before long he took charge of the church at Abergele, where he remained until he retired in 1887. For years he had maintained at his home a school for candidates for the ministry. He published a book of verse and also a translation of G. B. Johnson's Statement of Principles, 1877. He was for a time secretary of the connexion in Flintshire and Denbighshire. He died 2 April 1895.